The Visa Zero Dollar Verification Fee is set to $0.025 as of April 2022. This fee is also called “Account Verification” or an “Account Verification Fee.” The Visa Zero Dollar Verification Fee is a small fee (assessment) charged by Visa when a business verifies a cardholder’s information without charging the card – Zero Dollar Verification Messages.
The Zero Dollar Verification Fee is distinct from and preferable to, the Misuse of Authorization Fee, which is assessed when you verify a cardholder’s information and charge the card. The fee for Misuse of Authorization is approximately $0.09.
The Visa Zero Dollar Verification Fee In More Detail
Businesses want to be able to provide the best service to their customers by making payments easy and accepting card payments is one way to do this. However, there is a need to verify cardholders’ information if there will be a delay between the initial sign-up and the time for payment.
For example, if a user signs up for a movie streaming app, the merchant may collect the card details but still offer a 30-day free trial before charging the card. In this case, it is in the merchant’s best interest to verify the card information for accuracy and legitimacy. The only way to accomplish this is through the Visa Account Verification Service.
This article explains what Visa’s Zero Dollar Verification Fee means and how it works in detail.
Visa Assessments
When you accept Visa cards at your business, you must pay Visa assessments through your credit card processor. It’s important to note that Visa, not your payment processor, determines the cost of assessments. However, your payment processor is not always required to charge you for assessments.
How Does Visa Zero Dollar Verification Fee Work?
When users sign up for payment for a service, they provide their credit card information, which the merchant must verify before payment is made. But how does the Visa Zero Dollar Verification fee work, and what does it verify?
Account Number Verification (ANV) Service is a service provided by Visa that merchants can use to access a cardholder’s information. The ANV Service is a tool that assists merchants in validating cardholder data. It works by the merchant’s payment processor sending a message to the card issuer to determine the status of an account number. It validates the account without holding any funds because it is a zero-dollar authorization request. If the verification process is successful, the card issuer will either approve or decline the zero-dollar authorization request.
The following cardholder information can be verified using the ANV Service during the Visa Zero Dollar Verification:
- Account number
- Address Verification Service (AVS)
- Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2)
Benefits of the Account Number Verification Service
Until recently, the only way to verify a cardholder’s information was through ghost authorizations, which cost around $1.00 per verification process. Visa recognized that ghost authorizations restricted cardholder spending because, unlike the Account Number Verification Service, it held cardholder funds while verifying information. As a result, they devised the Visa Zero Dollar Verification. Here are some of the advantages:
Faster transactions
With the Account Number Verification (ANV) Service, merchants can now request cardholder’s details, and if the card issuer declines this request, the merchant can request the customer to use a different card. This helps make transactions faster when the actual payment is processed.
Risk protection
The ANV service helps protect the merchant against risk and chargebacks if the CVV2 number or address information doesn’t match. In doing so, it eliminates the need to submit reversals for authorization requests.
Recurring payment
For merchants that offer subscription-based services, the ANV service can be a great way to verify a customer’s information during the trial period. If the request is successful, they can go ahead and submit a request for payment if the customer decides to continue the service afterward.
How to Locate Visa’s Zero Verification Fee on Your Statement?
When you verify account information without charging the card, your processor will only charge you a Zero Dollar Verification Fee, which you may not see on your monthly processing statement. You will also not see this fee if you use a flat-rate pricing system, which is offered by processors such as PayPal, Stripe, and Square.
If you are not on a flat pricing model, you should be able to find this visa zero dollar verification fee as a line item under your Visa charge on your statement. It is important to note that this fee is referred to differently by different payment processors. However, a tip is to look for full names or variations, as well as the charge of $0.025.
How to Lower the Cost of Taking Credit Cards?
If you verify a lot of credit cards, you might want to look into ways to reduce the monthly fees. However, you may find it difficult to reduce your assessment fees. Unless you frequently incur authorization fee misuse by charging cards during the verification process. You can cut your credit card processing costs by changing your process and not charging cards during the verification process. However, because the difference between the two fees is so small, this may not make a significant difference.
Another possibility is to negotiate the lowest processor markup. Consider assessments, interchange fees, and the overall wholesale cost of credit card processing. You can contact your payment processing company to obtain a wholesale price for credit card processing.
Conclusion
While Visa’s Verification service (AVN) protects both merchants and customers, if you process a lot of credit cards in your business, the cost of taking credit cards can add up due to the Visa Zero Dollar Verification fee. You can reduce it by avoiding the Misuse of Authorization Fee and securing the lowest wholesale processor markup. If you can’t find the Zero Verification Fee on your monthly statement, keep in mind that different processors refer to it differently, so look for variations on the name and the $0.025 fee, which is constant.
